Reporting to the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Industry Relations, you will drive industry partnership pipeline development, including identification and development of collaborative projects and aligned investments; researching and identifying high-potential organizations and decision-makers, evaluating workforce trends, and tailoring engagement strategies to fit strategic priorities. You will work closely with industry, nonprofit, and government partners throughout the entire relationship lifecycle, stewarding engagement from initial outreach to long-term collaboration. You will guide the creation of customized partner-facing materials and keep UMCI apprised of policy changes affecting partnership and funding opportunities. You will facilitate proposal development, manage applications and reporting, and ensure compliance with sponsor guidelines. You will codevelop and refine internal processes for partner discovery and grants.
Link to full job description here.
Industry Relationship Management (40%)
- Build and expand partner relationships across the full relationship lifecycle with external partners (industry, nonprofit, and government), identifying key moments to intentionally engage and steward toward long-term collaboration, including corporate and philanthropic giving.
- Manage a portfolio of top industry leaders to identify and co-develop strategies and resources that address concerns in their value chains, including talent, research, and technology development.
- Engage with university, regional, state, and global partners to help industry leaders connect to resources and develop new interventions that support productivity and job creation.
- Nurture early-stage relationships with prospective and pilot partners, elevating partner conversations to senior leadership. Engage aligned partners in ongoing and impactful collaborative opportunities.
- Explore opportunities with corporations, foundations, and others for giving, sponsorship, and other forms of investment in UMCI priorities and programs.
- Convey complex topics to various audiences with the use of visual aids; apply understanding of multiple constituency groups in the University and improve relationships
- Organize, develop agendas, prepare materials, and facilitate high-level meetings, engaging corporate executives, economic development, education, workforce, and other leaders on an ongoing basis around strategic industry clusters and workforce sector initiatives.
- With administrative support, track interactions and log into donor database (DART).
Grant Leadership, Sponsorship, and Development Support (30%)
- Advise Principal Investigator and support execution on best practices to achieve an effective, quality proposal and/or post-award management.
- Support partnership facilitation, including working groups, for grant application development. This includes outreach to industry partners to assess their needs and negotiate their in-kind, direct, and other contributions to collaborative funding opportunities.
- Serve as manager of the UMCI research administrator, including facilitation of staff and partners to develop strategy, develop written grant applications and related budgets, conduct review process, organize required materials, and complete or coach application submission. Upon award, support implementation and oversee compliance, reporting, and other post-award activities.
- Overseeing and working with a research administrator to set up internal processes, policies, etc. to streamline and coordinate pre- and post-grant administration work.
- Monitor compliance with U-M practices and processes related to grant development, including cross-departmental communications and internal review procedures; leverage on campus grant development resources to support winning bids and applications.
- Support negotiation on behalf of UMCI for partners to be included in grant opportunities, including industry partners, that UMCI is pursuing or for inclusion of UMCI in external partner grant opportunities.
- Upon award, work with funders and internal team members to negotiate, review, and establish contracts for leadership approval and signature.
- Work with UMCI team members to identify outcomes and metrics, methods for tracking these factors, and work with team members to develop and manage systems and processes for reporting and evaluation.
- Support industry sponsorship package development and dissemination based on organizational strategic priorities.
- Contribute to internal reports and presentations to clearly demonstrate the measurable impact and ROI of initiatives.
New Industry Partnership Pipeline Development (10%)
- Independently drive, research, identify, and meet with high-potential organizations and key decision-makers, including senior-level industry representatives, who align with our strategic industry and talent development focus areas, including but not limited to robotics/automation, mobility and advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, innovation/entrepreneurship, and other similar sectors.
- Leveraging leading practices in cluster and sector strategies, including partner and industry convening and focused labor-market and other research, assess new markets and analyze business opportunities for prospective partners' innovation and workforce learning needs and challenges, tailoring engagement approaches to fit prospective partners' strategic priorities. Support program design and implementation around these findings.
- Organize and request resources to implement large-scale change.
- Keep abreast of state, federal, and other policy changes that may have implications for partnership and/or fund development opportunities. Share and report developments to affected team members.
- Facilitate partnership outreach efforts by guiding creation of and delivering customized partner-facing materials (presentation decks, case studies, storytelling content) that resonate with potential partners.
Process Improvement, Cross-Functional Collaboration, and Team Development (20%)
- Identify opportunities to refine and streamline our partner needs, discovery, and engagement processes across teams within UMCI.
-
